


Days At Evendim

by an_evasive_author



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Family Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 19:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18745273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/an_evasive_author/pseuds/an_evasive_author
Summary: Sometimes it's the little things that make it all worthwhile. In Celeborn's opinion that means sleeping in and eating his canatloupes in peace. Celebrian, too, thinks that, though her ideas of relaxation are a little different. Fighting monsters and sinking ships, for example. There must be a middleground somewhere between these things, surely.





	Days At Evendim

Galadriel was always up long before sun had even considered peeking through the trees. A skill Celeborn lacked, though he could make exceptions in trying times. This was not one of these times and so, when the warmth of his wife vanished from his side, he spread himself across the entire mattress to enjoy what was left of her presence. Also, to lay claim to the pillows which he was notoriously known to steal.

 

“There will be aching in your very imminent future,” Galadriel informed from where she sat in front of a large mirror and brushed her golden hair. It caught the light a thousandfold and gleamed as if polished.

 

Celeborn, mussed from sleep, wrapped in his blanket and utterly uncaring to both these things, yawned and turned his head. “A vision, my love?” It came out far less eloquent than he had intended but this too did not bother him so early after waking. He blinked, found the brightness unsatisfactory and curled his head back into the pillows  
  
“No,” Galadriel smiled to herself, as she watched something through her mirror, “An educated guess.”  
  
Raising an eyebrow, Celeborn turned on his back and made to inquire further when Celebrian, who had climbed onto the wardrobe to get the necessary height and jumped, impacted on her father like a fallen tree.

 

“Vanya have _mercy_!” Celeborn cried though it came out wheezing and half cut off.

 

“I win!” Celebrian crowed and threw her arms up victorious. Dimly, Celeborn remembered that they had played a game of tag the day before and Celeborn had snuck in the last tag by waiting for Galadriel to leave their daughter's bedroom. He would not be bested by a game of tag. In this point he was a sore loser. Celebrian, coming after her father, seemed to be just the same.

 

“We do not try to break your father's ribs, young lady. He needs those.” Galadriel admonished her daughter and plucked her from Celeborn who made a sound close to a death rattle.

 

“Thank you my dear...” he wheezed and brought a hand to his chest to see if anything had been broken. There was not but he did not feel like celebrating that fact. Celebrian had at least kicked him in the stomach upon landing. He still felt as if he had been turned to pulp and so he took his time to roll over and onto his side to feel sorry for himself for a little while.

 

Galadriel, utterly unsympathetic to her husband's plight, herded their daughter out of the bedchamber and looked back, one hand resting on the doorframe, “When his Lordship is done lazing around, may he join us for breakfast.”

 

Then there was silence. He was alone, to do as he pleased. His stomach growled, insisting that breakfast would very much please him. The pillows invited him back and Celebrian's laughter made it impossible to stay.

 

* * *

 

 

During gentler times, Lake Evendim would have made a fine summer home, Celeborn mused. Back when the world had not been quite so dark and his greatest concern had been to best Oropher in skipping stones over the long basins that had decorated the city. He was not much of a swimmer, but he could appreciate the sights all the same.

 

Celeborn did not mind thinking about fallen Doriath any longer. And if he believed it firmly enough, it would surely come true one day.

 

They had breakfast on the patio, like they always did when the weather allowed it. The small things in life where the ones that held their sanity together in dark and trying times. The lake sparkled tantalizingly and Celeborn watched the glittering display.

 

Celebrian tried, badly, to hide the things she did not like to eat in her napkin and when Galadriel admonished her once again, she shoved it onto Celeborn's plate.

 

“Young lady, I do not want your eggs,” said Celeborn, who favoured oatmeal and fruit. Strong tastes did not become him so early in the morning.  
  
“ _Well_ ,” said Celebrian and sounded frighteningly close to the disapproving tone her mother used. “Neither do I,” Celebrian pouted, folded her arms in front of her chest and narrowed her eyes. She was truly her father's daughter when it came to breakfast choices. She also rather raided the fruit bowl and left everything else in her diet woefully under-represented.

 

Galadriel, who, after the Ice, ate almost everything, safe seal which in all of her immortal life she swore to never endure again, rolled her eyes. Then, unwilling to argue so early in the day, she surrendered the cantaloupe to the both of them.

 

They descended like wolves. The poor cantaloupe stood no chance. Orange flesh lay exposed in the early morning sun, the seeds scooped out without mercy.

 

“Celeborn, honestly,” Galadriel said when her husband bound his hair together for the mess that followed.

 

“Mhm?” her husband asked through a mouthful of melon. Two pieces of rind, gnawed clean already, had been piled on his plate.

 

The seeds could be toasted and made for a rather nice snack. But Celebrian had no patience for that and ate them raw. She swallowed them after chewing twice and then grinned. This was short lived when Galadriel wiped her face clean from sticky melon juice that had gotten absolutely everywhere. “The both of you, like starved bears.”  
  
“Hmhp...” Celeborn agreed and helped himself to another slice.

 

* * *

 

 

After breakfast, they retreated to Celebrian's playroom. It doubled as the library as she had taken to carrying every single book to her room. Celeborn doubted that there had been much reading involved when it came to their perusal.

 

Galadriel played the monster, represented by the stuffed creature Celebrian had sewn herself. It had not much in the way of accuracy to the design of any living being, had seven legs which sometimes acted as horns or wings, depending what kind of monstrosity Celebrian needed that day and looked like a deformed stocking filled with chestnuts. Largely because it was just that. She could play the best monsters which was why Galadriel always ended up next to the wooden blocks that where the evil layer of the beast.

 

Celebrian was the brave heroine, armed with nothing but her wooden sword, her tiara made from daisies and her plucky wit. Able to brave every danger, she came out victorious in the face of impossible odds.

 

That left Celeborn who played the snobbish, arrogant prince who got himself caught because he was an idiot or the loyal, though simple sidekick. It was what he was usually stuck with and he had long ceased complaining.

 

Oh, in the beginning there had often been the question if he could be the monster. But Galadriel would not surrender the role any less than Celebrian would let him go. And so he remained, though by force and through coercion of sad eyes blinking away tears, on the good side. How boring.

 

They had searched for shelter in the book fort, barricaded the door with the embroidered pillows and now held out for the night. Or what had been the shorter part of the afternoon. Celeborn's legs insisted, however, that he had been stuck like this for close to an agonising eternity and so he had, inconspicuously, kicked a few books out of their impenetrable defence to stretch his aching limbs.

 

He tried to shove the large toy in the shape of a bunny out of the way and was tersely admonished for pushing Chancellor Fluff out of his designated place in court.

 

Galadriel, fitting the part of the monster, held out in the upholstered chair and sipped tea while reading a book. She grinned at Celeborn and waved when Celebrian forgot her mission for a moment to fetch sweets laid out on the table next to her mother. Celeborn contemplated giving up and leaving the lands of Pillow Fort and its denizens, the court of stuffed animals, to the clutches of the wife-monster. But when Celebrian shoved a biscuit between his teeth, he found the energy to keep going. He was not one to give up simply because he could not feel his legs anymore.

 

“Brave Lady, might I inquire as to what our strategy will be?” asked Celeborn and felt something in his back spasm. He shifted to ease some of the strain and managed to brush against one of the stacks decorating the secret escape. It tumbled over and buried his ankles in three layers of farming almanacs and the proper care for saplings.

 

“We go in,” Celebrian, in her infinite wisdom decided, “And we kick butt.”

 

“Flawless, my Lady,” said Celeborn while Galadriel grinned and readied her pillow in a truly amazing feat of clairvoyance. It had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she sat not ten feet away and could hear everything.

 

In the end, they found themselves at the eve of a truly awe-inspiring pillow fight. Truly, the minstrels would sing of this battle for ages to come. Especially when Celebrian turned on her loyal father and threw Chancellor Fluff at him. There was no mercy on any side after that.

 

* * *

 

 

With a picnic to restore their strength, calm returned for the moment.

 

Resting on his back, with his wife as cushion under his head, Celeborn tried to overcome the trauma of war. The battle had been fierce and surely there would be marks left for a long time. At least for the poor maids who had to stitch the stuffed animals back up. And of course the room needed to be cleaned from the feathers when one of the pillows had given up and ripped apart at the seams.

 

“You have a feather behind your ear,” said Galadriel and picked said feather out of Celeborn's hair, surrendering it to the light breeze that caressed the three picnicking elves. Celebrian had left her parents to build a dam in the shallow trickle of one of the many streams. A birch bark boat sat next to her, waiting for its time to set sail.

 

“And you still have that smug grin, my love.” Celeborn hummed. He felt a bone from the trout he had eaten stuck in his teeth and tried to dislodge it with his tongue.  
  
“Well, I did win the pillow fight,” Galadriel said and gave an amused yelp when Celeborn poked her in the side.  
  
His hands where caught and Galadriel silenced him swiftly with a kiss. The fact that there was no commentary told them that Celebrian had not seen it. She had scampered off long ago, immune to the fiend that was Lazy After Lunch, “Only history may decide that.” Celeborn said when his lips where free again. That damned fish bone was still there and he prodded with a finger.  
  
“I won, so I decide that,” said Galadriel and stroked her husband's forehead.

 

Celebrian, meanwhile, had managed to set sail and watched her boat brave the swirls and white water of the currents. Apparently those dangers where not thrilling enough, for Celebrian did her very best to pelt it with rocks. Truly, a vengeful lady of the water that now held the boat in its merciless stream.

 

Celeborn watched her, though the laziness held iron sway over him and he yawned mightily. Turning on his side, curled like a cat in the sun, he hugged the pillow that was his wife's lap and closed his eyes.

 

Galadriel allowed it, ever gracious, and smiled.

 

* * *

 

 

True to its name, the lake was at its most stunning in the evening. Celebrian did not see the dazzling display as the waning light seemed to set the water alight with its own illumination. Instead she seemed to take a keen interest in her supper. If nearly having your face fall into the bowl could be described as 'keen interest'.

 

Celeborn scooped her up, with only a token show of resistance before she snored against his neck, and brought her to bed. Galadriel watched them leave, smiling amused.

 

The last light vanished and Galadriel allowed herself to think of times long past.

 

After a time, she noticed her husband still absent and made to investigate once the empty bottle of wine ceased to be good company.

 

She found them in Celebrian's bed, both fast asleep. Toys and pillows had been flung everywhere, books still strewn about. She gathered the stuffed rabbit and the wooden sword and put them onto the chair standing at the end of the bed.

 

Then she pulled the blanket from under Celeborn and covered them both. Celeborn snorted in his sleep and curled onto his side. It was so terribly easy to forget the darkness ever looming over their heads when these days felt so gentle and joyful. And perhaps, Galadriel thought as she joined them, that was enough for now.

 

Outside, the waters of Lake Evendim sparkled in the moonlight.

 


End file.
